How Snails Could Make Robots Smarter

With only two brain cells to rub together when making decisions, it would be fair to say that snails are not that smart. Nevertheless, their simple decision-making process—recently discovered by scientists—could be used to design more efficient robot “brains.” Researchers from the University of Sussex found that complex decisions made by snails were achieved using just two cells; one that tells the snail whether it is hungry or not and the other lets it know if food is present. Try Newsweek: Subscription offers “A very small number of brain cells can play a key role in complex decision making processes and even in the optimization of the energy use of the nervous system,” lead researcher George Kemenes tells Newsweek . “In other words, you don’t need a large and complicated…